DRCNet Response to the
Drug Enforcement Administration
Briefing Book

Cocaine

DEA Statement	Response
Cocaine remains the primary threat in the United States, particularly in its smokeable form known as "crack" cocaine.	This is true only if you fail to consider tobacco - 400,000+ deaths per year, including perhaps 2,000 infants killed by sidestream tobacco smoke alcohol -- 100,000 deaths per year, not including half of all traffic deaths, and most of the homicides prescription drugs -- at least 10,000 deaths per year.
However, heroin has again become a major drug problem in many parts of the nation, and methamphetamine has also risen to the forefront in the Southwest, West, Midwest and Southeast areas of the United States.	As usual, the DEA presents a lot of claims without a lot of hard evidence to back it up. For an examination of how drug epidemics seem to come and go as it is convenient for the drug enforcement authorities, see The Moveable Epidemic.
Marijuana continues to be a significant drug problem around the nation, and other substances, such as LSD, PCP, Ecstasy and Rohyphnol have emerged as serious problems, particularly among young people.	It is difficult to see what particular problems are caused by marijuana use, and the DEA doesn't attempt to elaborate on what they might be. As for the other drugs, most of them, or something similar, have been around for a long time. The DEA seems to have temporarily forgotten the 1960s.
The following are brief descriptions of the major drug problems facing the United States today.

Cocaine is manufactured from the coca plant that is grown in the Andean region of South America, and is processed in remote areas of Bolivia and Peru. The vast majority of the world's cocaine is controlled by major trafficking organizations operating in Colombia, most notably the Cali mafia. Cocaine enters the United States in a number of ways; the majority of cocaine is transported by groups operating out of Mexico, who use vehicles to smuggle cocaine into the United States over land. Once in the United States, the cocaine is distributed by organized criminal groups with links to both Colombia and Mexico.	What it all means is that there are large sections of the population of an entire continent engaged in a large-scale industry which has become the primary source of income and support for literally millions of people. Stopping it would have the same economic effect as if we stopped the auto and oil industries in the United States. Indeed, some observers have commented that we cannot legalize drugs simply because so many countries have become so dependent on the illegal profits.

Wholesale distribution in the United States is controlled by drug mafias managed from Colombia. In general, the structure of these organizations are sophisticated and compartmentalized. Within the United States, retail distribution is dominated by organized criminal groups of many ethnic backgrounds. The crack cocaine which is sold on the street corners of U.S. cities or in numerous housing projects can be traced back through retail distributors, wholesalers and transporters to its point of origin in Colombia, where the Cali mafia controls nearly every aspect of the cocaine trade.	Prior to the Cali Cartel, it was the Medellin Cartel. Prior to them, it was Carlos Lehder and Manuel Noriega. The DEA should start its own Crime Ring of the Month club.
During 1995, cocaine was readily available in all major U.S. metropolitan areas. Generally, the price of cocaine remained low and stable at all levels of the traffic. In 1995, prices nationwide ranged from $10,500 to $36,000 per kilogram. During the same time period, ounce quantities nationwide ranged from $300 to $2,200 while gram prices were $30 to $200. The purity of cocaine remained high: gram amounts averaged 63% in 1994 and 61% in 1995. Per kilogram purity was 83% for both 1994 and 1995, ounce purity averaged 65% in 1995, down from 1994 levels of 74%.
Cocaine use: According to data from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an estimated 1.5 million Americans were current cocaine users. Although the overall number of cocaine users did not change substantially from the 1.4 million reported in 1994, the use of cocaine by young people did increase. The rate of current cocaine use in 1995 was highest among those age 12 to 17. Usage increased from .3 percent of this age group in 1994 to .8 percent in 1995. A slight increase was also found among people age 18 to 25, with 1.2 percent of this population having reported cocaine use in 1994 and 1.3 percent in 1995.	What is most obvious in this data is a failure to control the rise of the use of cocaine among young people. This should be the most obvious failure of the current policy -- from the DEA's own words.

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